Sir Ronald Cohen

Sir Ronald Cohen co-founded Apax Partners in 1972, building it into one of Europe's leading private equity firms. He is credited with helping create the UK venture capital industry. In the 2000s, he turned his attention to social impact investing, serving as chair of the UK's Social Investment Task Force. He developed the world's first social impact bond in 2010, launched Big Society Capital, and chairs the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment. Cohen advocates for an "impact revolution" in capitalism, arguing that measuring social and environmental impact alongside financial returns is both possible and necessary. His 2020 book "Impact" presented a systematic framework for integrating impact measurement into investment decision-making and argued that impact-weighted accounting should eventually become standard practice for corporations and investors globally.